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Scientists have finally figured out how to get rid of garlic breath

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Eating garlic-flavoured foodstuffs is one of life’s great joys, but the resulting garlic breath has long plagued mankind.

But finally, after years of tireless work in the field, scientists have figured out a solution to this problem.

Working from Ohio State University, researchers asked study participants to chew on a clove of garlic for 25 seconds before trying out a variety of ‘cures’ for the breath problem.

Some were given water, others raw, juiced or heated apple, raw or heated lettuce, raw or juiced mint leaves, or green tea.

God bless those poor souls who chowed down on heated lettuce for us to discover the answer to this age old problem.

The scientists then measured the volatiles - the chemical compounds which are to blame for garlicky breath - and found that they were lessened the most when people ate raw apple and raw lettuce after garlic - they reduced the concentration of volatiles in the breath by 50% compared to water.

Meanwhile, fresh raw mint was found to be best at masking the smell.

Unfortunately, you can’t expect the same results from a refreshing glass of apple and mint juice - they reduced the volatile levels but not as much as the raw versions.

Both heated apple and lettuce also reduced volatiles (if you want to put yourself through that), but green tea had no effect whatsoever.

The reason the raw foods combat garlic’s stinky after-breath is because the enzymes destroy the odours while the phenolic compounds destroy the volatiles.

Image: Ariane Lohmar / imageBROKER/REX/Shutterstock